Balancing the benchmark opportunities

It is noted that benchmarking activities can be focused on two areas, internal and external benchmarks. Depending on the focus, different objectives are achieved. Based on an enterprise´s reproducible development and delivery process, internal benchmarks are used to drive continuous improvements for quality and productivity as well as predictions of outcomes. Based on industry models or practices, external benchmarks identify competitive standing and improvement opportunities. As complementary activities, the external benchmark is used to identify new process requirements and the internal benchmark is used to focus the improvement efforts. Using benchmarks in the proper context allows an enterprise to make effective decisions on their software development and delivery processes